This invention relates to an electric apparatus module on which an electric apparatus unit is mounted.
An electric apparatus module having a case in which a camera module is accommodated is used. The camera module is attached, as an electric apparatus unit, to such as an upper portion of rear side of a vehicle (moving body). The electric apparatus module includes an upper case, a lower case which is assembled with the upper case and receives, together with the upper case, the camera module (electric apparatus unit) therebetween, the camera module, and a connection unit for connecting the camera module to an external apparatus.
The camera module is mounted on the upper case. The connection unit includes a connector (hereinafter referred to as “external apparatus-connecting connector) for connection to the external apparatus which connector is mounted on the lower case, a connector hereinafter referred to as “camera module-connecting connector) for connection to the camera module, and an FPC having opposite ends connected respectively to the two connectors to electrically connect these connectors. The external apparatus-connecting connector is mounted on the lower case.
For assembling the electric apparatus module, the camera module is mounted on the upper case, and the external apparatus-connecting connector is mounted on the lower case, and the camera module-connecting connector is mounted on the camera module while bending the FPC, and the upper and lower cases are assembled, thus completing the assembling operation. A connector of a wire harness mounted on the automobile is connected to the external apparatus-connecting connector of the thus assembled electric apparatus module, and the lower case is mounted, for example, on an upper portion of the rear side of a vehicle body of the automobile. The camera module of the electric apparatus module is connected via the wire harness to a monitor mounted, for example, on an instrument panel, and an image picked up by the camera module is displayed on the monitor.
In the above electric apparatus module, the camera module is mounted on the upper case, and the external apparatus-connecting connector is mounted on the lower case, and then the camera module-connecting connector is mounted on the camera module while bending the FPC, and in order to smoothly effect these mounting operations, the FPC need to have a length larger than a length required for connecting the two connectors together. Therefore, the FPC has often been caught between the upper and lower cases at the time of assembling the upper and lower cases together, and therefore it has been difficult to smoothly effect the assembling operation.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an electric apparatus module which can be easily assembled.